Androdion

Hello folks! Not that I'm not into lengthy posts, but basically, title?! I've recently gone back to slaying Kobolds here Kobolds there (Kobolds are everywhere!), and since I'm playing with PFP I'm with vanilla XP gain. And even though I've started at level 75 (thank you Char Editor), with all difficulties unlocked, I began at Gold because I actually went in "undressed". So basically I ran the entirety of the MC for gearing up, and without side-questing I defeated the Guardians and started Platinum at a measly level 82. That means that running MC alone in Gold netted me just 7 levels post-mastery, which seems really low. I know that XP gain from Platinum up starts getting better with questing, and not as good with mob killing, but since I intend to leave questing mainly for Niobium, where I plan to do all quests and exploration, is it really possible to reach max level? I know that there's a lot of quests, but that's also a lot of levelling up! Even if I end Platinum at level 100, given the XP penalty from then on, just how far should I be able to get? Asking it in a different way, is reaching level 200 only possible if you go heavy on questing on both Platinum and Niob? If not, just how much XP can Niob quests alone net a player?

The optimal way would probably be to use the weapon slots for this, so gear with CAR+X% (vrum vrum, muhaha) on a slot for general use with BT, and then another slot with a different itemisation for using IS for bosses. Sounds about right. I do remember old discussions about this issue with IS, and Hooyaah is right on the money, you do want to focalize your meteors into a small radius for boss killing. The Wiki entry for the CA has a few tips.

Nah bro, Delphic melee High Elf. I haven't played that one in a hot minute!

It's good to be back! My health is finally allowing me to focus on and do things that I haven't been able to do for a while, including coming back to the world of Ancaria again. Three tries as to what archetype I'm currently playing (yet again!)...

Hello there! Long time since I've posted here, but I had to come and pay my respects to this awesome endeavour. I've only ran the game for a few hours so far, but it's clear to me that the work Vishanka did with this mod is incredible. The game looks fresher than ever, less cartoonish in a way, and definitely easier on the eyes. Looking at the sands of the Bengaresh desert and not being blinded by the constant flare is refreshing. I think that I'm going to have fun rediscovering the game's areas, and with it all the little details that have eluded me for years. Thank you so much for this Vishanka, you have my respect!

Nice!

Yep, 1.1.9.6 it is. It removes passthrough on the remaining weapons that still had it and instead grants that option to WPS skills and specific weapon bonuses. I too have a Purifier, but it's actually a two-hander with Barthollem's Warmaul. The greatest thing about GD is its replayability and continuous rebalancing, it breathes constant life into the game I guess. Crucible I dislike because it's just arena rush into the centre from everywhere, but I do find SR to be more interesting, especially for loot. I don't intend on pressing over shards 75-76 to be honest. But that climb and the loot runs are pretty cool, plus you get to learn a lot about your build and some enemies.

Just wanted to pitch in and extend my congratulations on yet another iteration of this enormous mod. My man!

I had to read the conversation again to notice where we were two years ago. Cool that my Arena runs at the time were in any way helpful. Funny thing is, I still have the game installed, it's just that I only play Grim Dawn nowadays. And I don't even play Crucible!

The cake is a lie!

You say Druid and I think of my Primal Strike Shaman/Arcanist (thus, Druid) in Grim Dawn...

Thanks for the info, I had no idea those laws actually existed, let alone that they were being enforced. But I'm glad they are, as kids today are mostly clueless as to what real life is.

Thing is, we're all adults here and we should at least know how to act when faced against a casino roulette or a blackjack table, or in an extreme example, a game oriented towards micro-transactions. But not everybody playing the game is an adult, so what then? I know a few kids, sons of friends, that regularly ask as for pre-paid money cards for their Playstations. And it's oh so cute to see them have to racionalize how they spend that money on skins and other cosmetic stuff (Fortnite in this case), but I honestly don't think they're learning anything from that. They understand that the money is finite, but since it's something that they have access to semi-regularly I don't really think that they understand how much real money one can spend on cosmetics. So I wouldn't compare micro-transactions directly to crack, but, comparing micro-transactions in video games to gambling is something that I feel comfortable with because otherwise there's no regulation whatsoever. And as has been said, all that these companies care about is profit, so the further down the rabbit hole the better. I'm an old school guy. I pay for a game I want to use it to its full extent, that's it. So the idea of a "free" game that then keeps demanding your money at every turn is really shady to me, no matter the name of the franchise. And again, I get it, it's business. But honestly when games become like this I'm out.

Ha ha, what?! Man... Worst thing is that many people will actually sink money into this. Oh well.

Sounds alright in terms of normalisation.

It really was a long time ago, probably some 10-11 years now since I've played vanilla Sacred 2. Maybe more since I had FA on DVD and then I bought Sacred 2 Gold on Steam, so I can't really say for sure. The idea that I have in the back of my mind is that since you were doing charity you didn't have any kind of reward from that quest, being that you were providing for the poor. Call it a piece of lore. Now, it may be my mind playing tricks on me, I can't really say for sure.

I was talking about vanilla though. The extra skill point is a CM Patch addition which I'm pretty sure was never in the original game.

I think that the original quest didn't give you any reward whatsoever, because the poor were... well, poor! But it's been a long long time since 2.40.

Cool build you've got there. At first I thought you were playing the old Astral Lord type until you had the rest online, but you really went all in with the triple aspect. Very nice! I guess that it really depends on how much one devotes to specialisation in this game. Do you want to have three skills mastered at 75 and then go from there, or do you have a slower progression with the points being more spread apart?! It really depends on how you want to play, and it can be played more slowly indeed. I'm usually more on the first camp, specialise and jump difficulties as fast as you can to get better loot. I don't think I've ever played it the other way to be honest, ha ha.

My take on EP? If you want to use it you will want to have it as a primary mastery (one of your first three), because you'll always want to keep it at char level when levelling up to reap its benefits when doing so, and after that leave it at 75 points and use relic bonuses and/or gear bonuses to farm what you need to farm. Just don't compromise attack and defense for a small chance to find better gear though. Legendaries will still have a measly chance to drop, so don't gimp your toon because of post-mastery level EP. CTFV is a bonus native to every toon, and it grows naturally with percentage of map revealed if I'm not mistaken, but if you want that value to be big enough to not collect trash then you'll always need EP. At mastery level it basically turns all regular loot into rare tier loot, sometimes with better bonuses than what you'd get regularly. Higher tier gear (sets and legendaries) though will still only drop specifically when enabled by their loot tables, so if you're after EP to fill yourself with greens and oranges at every curve of the game... I wouldn't get my hopes too high.

Good point on picking up Stamina, especially if you're not mastering Concentration right away. I'm a bit biased since on melee toons I always drop my first 50 points in Vitality, as 1-50 is usually where you falter the most against elites and bosses, after that and with two points per level you can do things a bit differently. I still keep VIT at one point per level up until 75/100 depending on the toon I'm using and its sustain. So in a scenario where CONC is a one pointer then VIT->1 point/level up to 50 (or 25+25) and then VIT->1 point/STA->1 point per level up to 75/100 should be a good choice of attributes. For a melee SW placing points in INT or WIL seems like a waste to be honest. I'd only put points in INT if I were playing a pure Astral Lord caster. Aye, Speed Lore isn't great in most cases, though in some specific cases it can be very helpful. I remember playing a melee HE where I'd use both a weapon skill and SL to be able to pump up the attack and defense values, which are really hard to raise on a HE (which isn't really suited to be played like a regular melee, but can be). I actually made that build "semi-melee" as I was playing it with magic staff+shield. Oh my, good times! Just a small note regarding the Spell Resistance skill on a SW with a huge WIL bonus from Grim Resilience, it will "only" prevent you from getting crits from spells. The amount of WIL the buff gives you is preposterous, so you're well covered. As for a triple aspect SW, it's cool to have all three auras, but in terms of offence with 10 skills to choose... it gets very close to being unfocused. I once did a triple aspect Inquisitor and it was nuts, but, and this is the important part, it only ever worked because I had a network of shoppers coughing up +All Skills jewellery at every 15 levels. Without the sheer amount of points from that everything would fall apart. That and the dual swords with %LL, also fed from the shoppers. I mean, you can make anything work in this game once you have +20 All Skills at level 50-60, +45 at mastery level, and so on. Without that (I.e. IRL) you need to be careful in your point investment and your equipment and its bonuses. Sometimes worse equipment with better bonuses is actually more impactful than a great piece of gear that offers little sinergy other than a single great bonus. But I digress... It must be the late hour.

My early thoughts on this? You want a tank, go for dual buffs in Grim Resilience and Reflective Emanation. Those are pretty much indispensable if you're going to tank, so pick them up, early 1 pointer Concentration for being able to use both of them, and for the time being just work on keeping you CA regen times low enough to bash with Demonic Blow/Scything Sweep/Frenzied Rampage in-between normal attacks. You can read one rune into Belligerent Vault and you have your "onwards into battle, drop in the middle of the mobs" mobility CA. In alternative you could use Ruinous Onslaught, but that CA is a bit tricky to use, and BV does allow you to travel through higher/lower terrain. Read as many runes as you'd like, below max CA level, in the temporary buffs of both trees, Rousing Command and Augmentation Guidon, and pump yourself up to battle. If you then want to drop some serious damage, and melee damage is very dependant on attack speed, I'd recommend you picking up the Dual Wield skill since it unlocks higher level weapons and provides attack speed. It won't unlock weapon lore specifics, but it's a reasonable way to save some skills for other stuff. With that being said, you want a tank, go Armor Lore+Toughness+Constitution (this one is a primary mastery), drop your first 50 attribute points in Vitality, and from then on spread them evenly between VIT and Strength, since GR already boosts Willpower for magical resists. As a newcomer to this game I'd just ignore General Skills for the time being (the green ones) as they can eat up important skill slots. Oh, and bear in mind that in this game you want low CA regen times, which means, you need at least the relevant Focus skills for the trees you're using. Ideally you'd also want the Lore skills, but you're in luck here since the SW has Tactics Lore as a combined Lore skill for both the trees I've been talking about. So you get modification points on both trees when you put points in TL. You also get more "flat" damage and higher crit% chance, so that one's indispensable as well. As for the order in which you choose them, there's this rule of thumb where you should be able to put points in the relevant skills at every level, and since secondary skills demand 5 points in the primary skills, you do need to map it up a bit before you start playing. Otherwise you risk having unspent skill points at certain levels. Ideally you'd choose TL/DW/AL/CONC/one Focus perhaps between your first few skills, because you go 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, and then it's 18, 25, 35, 50, 65. So you should plan what skills are more important for the lower levels where you have a faster progression in levelling up, whereas some others will be left for last because they only shine at higher levels. For instance: 2 - TL (char level) 3 - AL (char level, or 5 pointer early on) 5 - DW (char level) 8 - Focus skill (either DWF or MCF, the one you're using the most skills or the one of your primary buff to lower regen times, 1 point) 12 - CONC (dual buff, 1 point) 18 - second Focus skill (for lowering regen time on the second buff, 1 point) 25 - :) 35 - CONS (char level) 50 - THOUGH (1 point) 65 - :) And you still have room in there for a weapon lore skill if you want, Combat Discipline if you value combos, or any general skill that you can master as your 4th or 5th if you really want to. Or Damage/Speed Lore, though those to me are more valuable if mastered than if left with few points, and they're very specific in their scope (DL for instance is to allow high DOT builds). You have three/four primary masteries in the making with that setup, that is three+one near mastery, or two+one and a few more points on Focus skills for CA modifications, etc. I mean, there's a lot of room for experimentation with that setup. Oh, and avoid triple aspect toons for now as they're very hard to balance, even with a SW that has a dual-lore skill. You just get very short on skills and points, so avoid that for now. Have fun!

Not really, but it gives a nice texture and flavour with the spinach. Try it some day, and a bit of grated parmesan to finish it up on the plate.

That I live to see the day, my man! If you're doing spinach stuffing then try it with a bit of ricotta cheese, like they do on the gnocchi.